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I like that calculator. . .good stuff
I like that calculator. . .good stuff
Our employer (my fiancé and I work for the same company) started changing the rate on the March 6th paycheck. My trusty pocket calculator says that I pay 0.7% less federal income tax now than I did in February.
I'm annoyed that it means they overcalculated but I suppose for the whopping $30 it might be by year's end that I can afford to lose that from my refund.
Besides, January 2010 will be our first year filing jointly. Who knows what that'll do to it all.
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I can confirm the extra $600 to each spouse. I am glad to know this is happening to everyone. How can the government screw that up?
Consumerist mavens, mobilehavoc is right. Let's spend some time pointing out how it's better to owe a little than to get back a lot.
@StutiCebriones: You have to be good at accounting, and patient, for that to work. You have to pay the taxes regardless, so I'd rather just let the government manage the money for me, and let them keep the interest. For lots of people, the amount of interest earned is so little that it's not really worth the trouble. I tried it one year, did the math, and it was only like $30 or so. Sure, my paychecks were bigger, but it's nice getting a big return every year (mine usually equals out to an extra paycheck) instead of paying a bill. 'Cause I sure as hell wasn't saving the money that I was getting back.
Already had to increase my withholding due to a Trad IRA->Roth conversion earlier this year. Might have to increase more now.
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Oh I know I should adjust my withholding, but after how many times I had to scrape up cash to pay my damn taxes while in college, I'd rather take the hit now in my paycheck and get a refund later.
What the heck you talking about? CA just raised all of our taxes from employment to sales tax. It completely reverses whatever \"stimulus\" er, smoke and mirror circlejerk, the cult in Washington has done.
Anyways, I have no withholding's. I send the Government money each year when it's due, not give them an interest free loan. And I'm leaning heavily on not paying any Federal Tax this year because these bailouts are nothing more than taxation without representation.
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@krispykrink: Seriously? Let us know how that works out for you. Hopefully not from a Federal penitentiary.
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@ZukeZuke: Yeah, because they may not come after him this year, but eventually they will garnish your check OR they can even send a letter to the employer forcing them to withhold taxes, and you can't change it. I work in payroll so I have gotten these for some of our employees.
I understand the logic of giving back little bits instead of lump sums, but I really hate this credit. My wife and I both work and we are being overpaid.
I know it's technically better to owe in April, but I really like getting that bonus refund money. We're pretty much month to month as it is and owing $400 in April is not cool. If we can make it when Uncle Sam is taking out too much, the refund means we can buy something we've been too cheap to buy for the past few months.
I also don't mind giving the government an interest free loan as long as they give me back what I'm due. I'm pretty sure they could use it right about now...
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Um.... I LOVE this! I LIKE paying at the end of the year. That means I basically got a tax free loan from the feds/state & earned interest on it. Paying it back at the end of the year is ok with me... since I am a voracious saver.
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I've always heard it's better to have a higher withholding and pay money at the end of the year. Otherwise, it's just money you're giving to the government interest free. At least you can put the money away and make some more money with it, even if it's just 1.5%.
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Bush the first got me that way back in the day. They changed people's withholding but left the amount owed alone. I ended up owing money at tax time and hadn't saved up because I didn't know it was coming.
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@Dillenger69: I remember that too! Old George senior was under pressure to pull us out of the recession, and this was Bush's hairbrain idea - increase people's paychecks, then hightail it back to Texas before they get their tax bills. Brilliant!
I guess what I don't understand is, if you're a DINK (duel-income, no kids, filing jointly, no home-loan interest to deduct) and already claming \"0\" what do you do? Claim -1? I already got screwed once when I had to enter last-year's refund into turbo tax and it knocked down my refund considerably. How screwed will I be now?
@rexmus1: You can add an extra dollar amount per pay period to be withheld if you don't think claiming 0 is enough out of your check. E.g., claim 9 deductions and an extra $5 per paycheck withheld.
sorry, meant \"last year's STIMULUS\" knocked down '08 refund...
I have two jobs, but I usually get about a $1500 return so maybe this year I will just break even. That's fine with me.
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Oh crap, mine started last week. I got an extra $10 in my paycheck.
Does that mean I'll owe $10 at the end of the year?
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This year I came in exactly even, which is exactly what I wanted. That, or owe just a tiny bit.
\"Joint filers whose spouses work.\"
Oh, you're f'n kidding me. Seriously, what percentage of joint filers does that include? And it didn't occur to them that it might pose a problem?
I already got screwed over this year for my husband's job not withholding enough. (Remember kids, the US has a pay-as-you-go system! You may be charged penalties if you owe too much at the end of the year!) Now that I've tried to fix that by withholding more from my paycheck, they're breaking it again? GAH.
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super-complicated tax code is super complicated
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Wow, the \"you're giving the government an interest-free loan!!!1\" crowd is in full effect. This nugget is starting to rank up there with the tired \"think about all the money you're wasting on your daily latte\" advice.
Some probably don't realize this, but for many readers of this site, we know. We don't care. We'd rather know that we're getting a big check every spring than getting a couple extra bucks each paycheck throughout the year.
Yeah, yeah, we're wasting $dozens in interest. Many of us have weighed the options and made the decision to not worry about writing checks to the government, and just let Uncle Sam swim around in our interest coinage like Scrooge McDuck for 11 months.
@plutonyum: I know, right? My refunds are usually $1000-$1200. Would 12 months of interest on that amount really be worth all the extra hassle of checking my deductions, calculating how much to withhold, moving it to my savings, and then moving it back at tax time to pay uncle sam? No. Uncle Sam can gladly keep my interest for the trouble, he needs it anyway, and I'm happy to get a big check every year that I can use to buy stuff I normally can't afford, like car repairs or a new computer.
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Jokes on you IRS...The massive amount of interest my vampiric home loan generates MORE than offsets anything I could owe. HA HA HA! I win??
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Sounds good to me...I always prefer to owe the IRS money (not too much of course) every year. At least I can invest the money I will eventually owe the IRS and make some interest on it. I don't understand why people think getting a refund is such a good thing, you've essentially given the US gov't an interest free loan.
@mobilehavoc: I'm lucky enough that I can afford to have extra money deducted from my paycheck so I can have the peace of mind of knowing I have a cushion in case my taxes are more than I expect. Besides, I'm just going to put most of it in the bank anyway when I get the refund back. I use it as an opportunity to be thankful/grateful to God that I'm not in desperate need of the money.
@mobilehavoc: I see a lot of the \"big refund = good\" mentality at work; they wonder why they're living from hand to mouth from April to February, then they imitate drunken sailors as soon as they get that big check in hand. There will probably be a lot of ticked-off hand-to-mouthers next tax season, if Uncle Sam starts looking for cash back or lowers expected refunds to adjust for overpayments.
@mobilehavoc: I'd rather get a small refund than have to make sure I don't spend a huge chunk of money just so that I can send it to the government. Juggling everything is tight enough as-is.
Now, if I were getting thousands of dollars in refunds sure, something would be wrong, but I'd rather gain $400 than have to write a $400 check.
@mobilehavoc: I look at is as mandatory savings if I have them deduct too much. Then I get a fatty refund I can spend on something frivolous. :)
@mobilehavoc: Yeah exactly why I don't overpay on my estimated taxes.
@mobilehavoc: Exactly! I used to work with a bunch of morans who just loved loved loved getting their big tax refunds while I paid around $400 every year. I never could make them understand they were getting their own money back that they had overpaid, and that they had given the government a free loan while I was getting a free loan.